KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Bold Strategies for Success

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome, welcome, welcome to Cliffs Notes. We're doing a special edition today. We've got our friend the super luxury star Elizabeth Riley, direct right by the state capital of Texas. She's going to join us just in a minute. So stay tuned for this episode of CliffsNotes. All right, you folks may notice we do have the missing man formation in effect today. And that's because C3 is not feeling.

very well. So we want to send our prayers and thoughts back to him. He'll be fine. He just has a little allergy that he's dealing with, but we'll sure miss him. But in the meantime, we do have somebody here very special, and I'm so excited because she's one of my dear friends and business partners here at the brokerage. And I got to tell you what, if you have not met this young lady, you are in for a real treat. She is the, I'll call her the luxury goddess of the state of Texas because she really is and she's down in Austin. Let's out. Let's bring her on without any further ado here. Here she is Elizabeth Riley. Welcome my dear friend Elizabeth. How are you? I am great. Thank you for having me. This is so fun to be able to get to visit with you today.

Man, I got to tell you what, that is the coolest background, the coolest shot I've ever seen. Now that's live. That is not green screen. That is the real deal right there. The capital right behind me. It's beautiful. Yeah, that is amazing. And I've been there, and you know a little interesting factoid is that that state capital building is actually higher, taller, just by, I think, a matter of a few inches than the capital in Washington, D.C. When they built that capital for the state of Texas, they wanted to make sure that we had the highest capital in the entire country. Isn't that? That's just typical Texas, isn't it? Right. Everything has to be bigger than in Texas, right? Yeah, exactly.

Under construction, you can't really see it right now, but it's a beautiful building inside and out. I actually, years and years and years ago, I had my bridal portraits done inside the Capitol, so it's a special place. Oh, that is so cool. I've been there many times. My kids have been down on the floor with Florence Shapiro back when she was a senator, and it's just an amazing experience to go down there. It's funny because, you know, literally you've got the capital and then you've got one of the largest, well, the largest in Texas state universities that there is. There's always a lot of, you know, just a lot of crazy stuff going on down in Austin. Is Austin still weird or has it lost its mystique since it got all those people from other places moving in? No, it's definitely weird. It's true to all the things that you see.

And it's fun. It makes it very diverse. It makes it very fun. It's a young city. There's so much to do here, so much to see. But it's definitely weird. Yeah, well, that was the birth and the marriage of country and rock and roll. It's like when Willie Nelson and Zizi Top played together for the first time there in Austin. That was just really a new chapter in music. And it's always been a great place. You know, kind of the Nashville of the South. But it's great to see you. Let's talk a little bit about Austin real estate. You guys, man, you were in that top. three of overvalued markets at the end of last year. What's going on down there? What are you, what are you feeling? I think we're feeling the result of that, quite frankly. It's been a weird market. It's not really anybody's market. It's not a great market for the sellers or the buyers and interest rates. There's so many different forces that are kind of coming together and it's,

it's creating a lot more challenges than we've been used to. Also coming off of, you know, a couple years ago with COVID and how high our market went. I think we're just having a hard, having a little bit of pain readjusting to that. So things are still moving. People are still moving in and out of the city, around the city. But we have to just think differently and market differently to make sure that our properties are the ones that are selling in the best light. And they're selling well, but it's still taking a lot longer than it was before. So everybody's having to pivot quite a bit. you and I've both been in the business for a long time, you longer than me, but it's not like 2008 what we were experiencing there, but it is definitely a shift and it's something that we

have to change our business and our mindsets and how we interact and treat our clients. Well, I couldn't agree with you more. I think we've gone now from being order takers for the last five years, say, to now we've really got to know our trade. And, you know, this is where you're going to see the finning of the herd and the strong will survive. and get better. And unfortunately, those who may not have been predestined for real estate are finding that out because they're actually having to work to get deals done and so forth. You know, there was an article not too long ago that brought up, and there was questions about the source, but it brought up things about short-term rentals in Austin and about

how revenues for Airbnbs were really like down by like 50%. Have you seen any fallout from that at all? know that's not one of the parts of the business that I've ever participated in really because especially in Austin things change so quickly and it's it's allowed in some areas and it's not allowed in others and so I'm hearing that there's some adjustments there but I don't really focus on the short-term rentals if I'm focused on rentals at all it's because I have a lot of investors and so we support them there but those are more longer term I'm hearing I'm hearing rumblings about it I just don't have enough experience or knowledge to be intelligent you know and in terms

I guess intelligently to answer that question. Well, but you haven't seen like a flood. They were talking about this huge flood of inventory that was going to hit because people were going to be dumping, dumping your Airbnb. Yeah, we have some people that we're doing short-term rentals that live out of state or live out of the city that it's just more to manage. We're selling those properties, but I don't think it's because of what's been going on the last few months.

Yeah. Well, your big impact down there obviously is in the luxury. side of things. How's the luxury market doing? I mean, it's good. I'm actually, my business is all referral business. And so a lot of my clients are moving up, moving down. So I work all price points. The luxury market, a lot of it sells off market here in Austin. And so it's really just critical for us to have those great communications and great relationships with the other agents around the city because we're all looking for very unique, very special properties. And, and, but the luxury market's selling pretty well. Again, if it shows well, if it shows well, if it's,

it's priced well, we're still getting multiple offers on those properties. And then you've got some others that'll just sit for a little bit. But I'm not seeing any decline really in my business. But again, I'm very, very intentional with my relationships with my clients and what I do to market and focus on building my business. And so my price points are all over the board. I'm not seeing as much decline as I would have probably anticipated if I was just watching the media. Yeah, that's the thing is the media, I really, I believe, I don't believe they have a very good understanding of our business and, you know, they tend to try to hype and sensationalize the headlines a lot of times. Are there any particular areas of Austin that, I mean, I know

it's, at least in our area, it's kind of like the weather, could be raining in downtown and the sun shining up in Plano or prosper. Are there any areas of Austin? that you've seen or just happen to notice where days on market has really, you know, stretched out or that where things just are not moving at all? I'm seeing a lot more inventory south of the river in like 7-8704. That's a really, really popular area and a popular neighborhood. We had a lot of builders in there. And I think here's what I think really happened is builders were paying premiums for lots

during the heyday building, cost of building went up. prices to recoup some of those costs went up. And so they're just sitting there longer. We have a lot more inventory in 2004 than I'm used to typically. So that's a little bit surprising. Outside of the city, we're seeing things move a little bit. Georgetown has been really hot. I've had a lot of listings in Georgetown.

That's north of Austin, north of Round Rock, which is surprising. But again, you go where the referrals take you. And so we're still getting multiple offers up there. But in the areas that I would have thought, central Austin, really close to the city, we'd just have more inventory just sitting for longer periods of time. And a lot of it's some of the newer construction. I just really think builders overinvested or overbuilt or overpaid and they're trying to recoup some of those costs. Yeah, interesting.

Well, let's shift gears here a little bit. Elizabeth, you know, you and I have been friends for, well, I see, I joined the EXP about six and a half. almost it'll be seven years at the end of this year. Wow, that doesn't seem possible. But you've actually been with EXP longer than I have. How long have you been with this brokerage? Almost eight and a half years. Eight and a half. Isn't that crazy? And it flies by. It doesn't even seem that long. And how many agents were with this national worldwide brokerage back when you joined? So my market center that I was a part of when I left had 650 agents. And when I joined EXP,

I'm agent 466. So EXP had less agents than my one office here in Austin at the time. Okay, let that sink in for a second. So you're either a visionary or clairvoyant or something to have the foresight or the pre-not, whatever you want to call it, maybe just dumb luck. Couldn't have been dumb luck, right? I mean, you saw something in a very early stage that, I mean, after being with the big box franchise, the red, and then going to something like this where it was just, I mean, the first time you saw the world, what did you think about that? It's a funny story. I didn't get it. Actually, Glenn Sanford came into town to meet with me. Again, he only had 400 agents. There weren't, it wasn't this big company that we are now. And that's one of the first things he showed me.

was the world and he took me into an executive board meeting and I totally didn't get it. I just didn't understand what the value was, what the purpose was. I didn't understand this company, but I don't know what drew me to make a change originally. I don't know if it's dumb luck. I'm definitely not a, I mean, I'm a visionary in a lot of things. I'm not a visionary the way that Glenn is a visionary. And the reality is I was bored. I was uninspired and I was on a hamper.

and I had been at the same company for 10 years, loved the company, worked my way up, was number one when I left, and I just needed to get back to the basics and get back to the passion and get back to why I got in the business in the first place. And I wasn't doing that where I was. I was stagnant. And I think when you're not growing, you're dying. And when I met Glenn, people joined people. And I really loved his heart for the agents, the industry, what he had done. And I could get back to just really loving the business again and collaborating with people all over the place in true collaboration. Where I was, I was number one. And I didn't, being the big fish, you're just as big as your surroundings. And so coming over here, I was surrounded by agents doing really amazing things in different ways around the country. And when you own something, you just treat it differently. And so our collaboration was unlike anything I had ever seen and the people.

And so it really wasn't the world. It wasn't RevShare. It wasn't any of those things that brought me to the company. What brought me to the company was not only the people, but then the opportunity to have ownership, so stock. And where I was before, my old company, I had a baseball cap every year that said capper. And while that's nice, that's not going to help me create a legacy or help me make an impact. And being able to have stock in a company that was being coined the Amazon.com of real estate, I just thought, well, what if?

You know, what if that worked? That could be really amazing. My business would be back on track. And what if it doesn't work? Well, if it doesn't work, you know, I can go back to any other company or start my own brokerage. So for me, the risk was not making a move because if I stayed where I was, I was just going to slowly die on the vine. Yeah.

Am I hearing you correctly? is it better to be a shareholder than a stakeholder? Oh my gosh, it's amazing. It's amazing. And so you actually, I mean, just, you have so many credits to you. You retired your husband. Your husband worked in tech, I believe, if I recall. Les.

Did it del for 25 years, yes. Yeah, Dell for 25 years. And you actually retired him. Did. Yeah. So now he's a stay-at-home dad and taking care of, you know, having fun, watching the kids at the lake and doing stuff. like that and helping you obviously well absolutely and that's really what I mean

we have four children and they didn't really know him all that well because I mean they knew him but he traveled all the time internationally and so when we decided to retire him it was a number of reasons but I mean our company offered health care and all these other things and I said why are we doing this you've lost your spark you've lost your passion so what would we need to do to help you find your passion and something that you're you're wanting to do again and building the relationship with our kids. And so now he's so tight with all four of them.

He's incredibly involved in football and volleyball and cheer and all the things that he missed for those years that he was working and helping our family. But now he can take a step back and really start enjoying what we've built together and our family together. And he helps me and it works really well. That's such a great story. And I mean, that's your story,

but there is other examples throughout our company where things like that have happened. And it's so wonderful to hear about that. So your production, when you left the big box and you came over to the, I'll call it the bird's nest for lack of a better term, your production, what did it do? Did it drop off precipitously or what happened? Oh my gosh. It was crazy because now I'm not really great with following my numbers or I wasn't great

at following my numbers because I was very much. relational and all about referrals and you build the relationship, you're going to build the business, right? But when I left my old company, like I said, I was number one out of 650 agents and dying. No, I mean, I was so burned out that I just really wanted to get out of the business. Well, I came over here, the first full year at EXP, we now had 2,000 agents across the nation, and at the award ceremony, I was number one. And then the second year, the first year, we had 5,000 agents and I was number one again. And I remember coming on the stage and Glenn said,

see, you should know your numbers. And I was like, actually, this is much more fun not knowing because I'm surprised. But I went from, you know, my business just kind of being stuck to really flourishing and building it. And again, I wanted to get more into luxury and I wanted to do other things that I wasn't getting from my market. So when you're learning from, for example, the Beverly Hill guys doing luxury, that's very, very different than what Austin's doing. but can I learn from them? Absolutely. Can they, you know, open their playbook and why would they do that? Well, number one, we're not competition, right? They're California. I'm Texas. Number two, most people don't do what you tell them to do anyway.

And number three, if I win, they win, we all win because we're owners of this company. And so I recognize quickly that I was being, I had been for 10 years more loyal to my broker than I was to my family. And this company allowed me to change that. Oh, that's, yeah, I mean, that resonates with me like crazy. You know, back when I was at Brand X, it was about competition. And when I came over here, it went from competition to collaboration, which does nothing but fuel everyone and help everyone's business. That's outstanding. And so in the time that you've been here, the eight and a half years, I believe you said, you mentioned that you've done really well in sales.

How much has it cost you to do business over here? there's a $16,000 cap for individual agents. What have you paid to the broker? Well, I'm actually pretty much being paid to be here because I of the stock and because I'm an icon agent, which is one of the top producers where my stock was or my cap was paid back in stock. And I was that's one of the main reasons I came over was because of the ownership and Glenn had talked about the icon program really elevating and celebrating the top

agents instead of a baseball cap I was getting my $16,000 back in stock and I was the first icon ever named I have eight icons I'm almost to number nine and that first icon award I mean it's probably when I looked at the numbers the other day is worth around $750,000 I guarantee you that baseball cap is nothing you know not even worth 70 cents so it's allowed me to change my business make different decisions invest in other in other people invest in my team invest in my marketing differently, invest globally. It's just allowed me to have a lot more freedom. And by them paying back my cap and stock

and all the stock I get throughout the year and then even RevShare, it's just, I don't really pay anything. The real estate you do. So directly and indirectly, you've had an impact on a much bigger share of the company, a much larger number of agents, and that's really,

really through revenue share and introducing them through yourself and then through the people that you've brought on board. A lot of people may not know this, but you're actually the person who brought Jean Frederick over to EXP. How has that impacted your life? Absolutely changed my life. And when Glenn and I first met and first talked, he talked about Rev Share and I told him I wasn't interested.

And he jokes with me now because it has changed my life. But more than that, it's allowed me to help change other people's lives, right? And there's not many companies that you can say do that. What company can you truly, truly believe is life changing. So what happened, though, is, again, people follow people. And people knew me from my old company. They knew who I was. They knew what kind of person I was.

I'm a connector. I love on people. I really truly believe lifting others as I climb. And when we all win together, it's so much more fun. It's not fun being at the top of a mountain by yourself. It's very lonely. So with the RevShare piece, I wasn't interested in that. I was focused on my production, but people just organically started following me.

What are you doing? Where are you going? I'm going to go wherever you go. And that has cascaded into a global organization that I could have never dreamed of. So with the people that have followed me directly, I love on them. They love on all their people and everybody's winning together. And so, I mean, amazing stories. I had one of my agents, this one still touches me.

She called me and she said, you know, I'm a very anxious personality. I'm very nervous. I always have a thousand dollars cash in my bed mattress. I mean, I didn't even know people still did this, right? And she said, I had a thousand dollars cash because if something happened for my family and she called me crying one day and she said, you know, I just want to thank you for changing my life. And I said, I didn't change your life. You changed your life by making a decision. And I said, what's going on? Are you okay? She's like, I'm more than okay. I forgot that I was being

awarded stock for my transactions. I forgot that I had this building up in the background. And I just opened that up and I have $7,000 of stock that now I don't have to keep $1,000 in my mattress anymore. I mean, something that small to many people is huge for them, and that changes, you know, her outlook, and it changes her relationships with her family, and it changes just who she is, and her business is completely transformed. So those are the stories that are amazing. Yes, people are paying off their homes. People are buying investment properties. I retired my husband. I paid off my parents' home, right? I grew up really, we grew up with nothing. We had 140 foster children in 20 years. My parents worked so hard and they were servant leaders and soon I could surprise them and pay off their home.

So now they can work because they want to, not because they have to and they can follow their passions, right? So people that have medical concerns, they're now able to step back from their day-to-day business and focus on their health. I mean, that is life-changing for so many people. So the company is amazing and we're just getting started. I did want to pass that moment by, but just to catch up with what you just said here, you said you had 140 foster children in and out of your home in 20 years. Okay, let that sink in for a minute. How did that form your view of the world? and how did it change the Elizabeth Riley that we know today?

How did it make this whole person come into fruition here? I was the oldest, you know, and I think it really plays into who I am today. I always want to make sure everybody's taking care of. And when you have children coming in your home that have horrendous situations or all this trauma, you really don't have any right to complain, in my opinion. I don't have any right to complain. I am so grateful for opportunities and everything that I have, whether it's good or bad, everything got me to where I am today.

So I don't have regrets. I just want to make sure I take care of everybody. And that's, you know, that's good. Sometimes I do more for people and I can't want something for somebody more than they want it for themselves. but I really see that in people. And so my mom was a servant leader, you know, and I saw what she did for these families and these children. And I don't know, I guess I don't ever call myself a servant leader.

I mean, people call me a servant leader, but I just want to pour into other people. And again, it goes back to we all win together and everybody is better off. So it probably came from my childhood. But we impacted a lot of lives in that way, and so now I have the opportunity to do that now. Things are you involved with outside of selling real estate and, you know, working to grow your rev share group. What other things are you involved in inside or outside of the company that are sort of, you know, from your heart, charitable things? Sure. Lots of things. So I'm on the advisory board for partnership for children that is focused on the foster care system in central Texas. No surprise there. I've been chairman of the board for a number of nonprofits, all related to children for a long time. I've rolled off of some of those just to give other people, you know, opportunities or you kind of outgrow your usefulness and sometimes you need to have new ideas and new people coming into the spots. So it gives me opportunities to look elsewhere where I can best

serve whether it's time talent or treasure I have four children very involved with them so I'm very involved in their schools I give back to our community quite a bit we do a lot of things anonymously it's just I mean you're the same way I watch what you're doing and I think that's why we're so aligned but within the company I'm very involved I'm so proud of this company because it's our company and I'm so grateful to everything so I again I feel that I have an obligation and an opportunity to pay it forward. I'm certified success coach. I'm success named me one of the 125 women to watch, 125 women in leadership. I'm really involved in teaching and coaching and training. My dear friend

Renee Funk and I accidentally started a podcast called Leadership from the Heart during the pandemic, where it was truly people were coming to us asking what do we do. And when you're a leader, and you don't know how to lead. You reach out to other leaders that you admire. And so we started reaching out to leaders and asking how do you lead in adversity? And it just, I mean, when you're in COVID and you can't leave the house,

we started doing it every single day. And so we built something pretty amazing there. And we're going to start that again. But leadership from the heart, I have a women's group called Fearlessly Authentic Women in Real Estate. It's just anything we can do to pour into other people, it fills my soul.

Boy, that's just touching to hear, and I know that there are people watching this show that are just really moved by this, and hopefully it'll move them in the right direction and get them to follow their dreams. Elizabeth, you do give, and in fact, you're going to be part of the group that's hosting some of the top teams in the region here. In fact, I'll be driving to Karen and I are going to be driving to Austin on Saturday to spend some time with your team. guys and we're super excited. Give us a little peek at what you've got in store for us on Monday when all of these top teams from the region come together to Mastermind. It's pretty exciting because we have some of the top leaders within the company nationally and we have corporate and to be in a room, I always say the rooms that you're in matter and if you're not in the right room, move rooms, right? And if you're not, if you can't find

the right room, create it. And so what's going to be in a room, great is that we all have input and we can all create these rooms that are so dynamic and so impactful. And so it's going to be a very intimate mastermind. The top 50 in the nation have been invited, the top 50 individuals and teams. And we're all going to be in a room in Austin, which I'm excited because it's close to home, but, and just really closed doors and pouring into each other. And the collaboration that we all experience in those rooms is unlike anything else I've ever been a part of. I mean, we go, we've all been to those conference. where in my opinion people are posturing. They're not giving you all that they can give you.

They're just giving you enough, but it's like, I'm better or you're better. And in this room, we're all equal. We're not better. It's like, what can I add to build your business or what are you doing in your business that could enhance mine? And so it's a very private, intimate event. And it's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. And we're going to walk out of there with so many nuggets and re-inspired and more passion and just again focused on our agents and our teams than our community. But I hate to say this, but I know we got a little bit of a late start, but we're at the end of our allotted time here.

If there is somebody in our audience out there that's interesting in perhaps looking at a new room and they wanted to talk to you, what's the best way for them to reach out and get a hold of you, talk to you on the phone or chat? Yeah. If they're within EXP, workplace chat, it's easy. That's a great way to catch all of us. That's terrific. Well, you definitely have the heart of a champion and I just hope that you are super contagious and continue to do the great things for others that you do. I mean, you do great for yourself, but you know, you're one of those people that when your oxygen mask is on, you're putting oxygen masks on everybody else. And that's one of the many reasons why we all love and respect you. So I'm so excited that you could make it.

And I'm even more excited to see you in Austin day after tomorrow. So, man, just get it ready. We're going to set some things on fire. The fourth quarter for this year for EXP is going to be amazing. And I'm super excited to be alongside you in the journey. So thanks again for being on the show, Elizabeth. Thanks for having me. friendship means the world and this has been a lot of fun and I can't wait to hug your neck and

Karen's neck on on Saturday or Sunday. Well yeah, it'll be right around the corner here. All right. Well, keep an eye on those guys behind you. Make sure they're doing a good job for us in the state capital. But we'll say goodbye to Austin, Texas and Elizabeth Riley all the way back here in Dallas at Lincoln Center. Thanks Jeff Crilly for having this studio for us to be able to do this today. that was I think the first time they've landed both of us in their two different studios on the same channel here. So we're excited about that and man, that was a great looking set back there. But thank you guys for being here. We really appreciate it.

C3, we missed you, buddy. We're going to send you much love here from Lincoln Center. And just remember, if it wasn't for you, there'd be no need for us. So we're very thankful for you as well. And we'll see you next week right here on Glyph's notes.